Hold My Hand
by RELiC-SPiRiT
Summary: Fai, a nurse, gets an unusal request from a girl who barely knows him. Sakura and Fai friendship, AU.


**RELiC's Notes**

**Title:** Hold My Hand

**Rating:** K+

**Fandom:** _Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles. _AU.

**Summary:** Fai, a nurse, gets an unusal request from a girl who barely knows him.

**Warnings**: None.

**Disclaimer:** Characters, names and places belong to CLAMP.

Enjoy!

Sighing, Fai rubbed his eyes wearily as he slid the glass door shut behind him. Only five more patients to go, and then he could go home to his apartment and sleep for a few hours before his afternoon shift. Despite himself, Fai gave a small smile at the thought of his empty, quiet house. Before, he would try to stay at the hospital as long as he could to stave off the loneliness. For once he gladly welcomed the isolation.

Stifling a yawn, Fai finished filling in Mr. Reese's chart and slid it into the plastic box beside the door. Now he moved to the room beside Mr. Reese's— this was a new patient, a young girl who came in a day ago after a three car pile up on the highway. Fai was the nurse on duty when the girl came in, and even though he had seen the worst accidents, he could not stand seeing children or people his age coming through the emergency room doors.

This girl, however—her name was Sakura Kinamoto, Fai remembered, as he quickly glanced over her chart—had it lucky; she had a minor whiplash, concussion and her left side was bruised from her car door. The young man who was driving with her suffered a broken wrist, and he was nearly beside himself at his girlfriend's state. Yes, Sakura was very lucky; the poor fellow who smashed into the couple from behind was not. Fai pushed that thought out of his mind as he opened the door to her room quietly. The emergency doctor wanted Fai to check her vitals every hour. This was the third time tonight he had visited her, and every time he woke her to check her blood pressure he could never get her to stay awake for long.

Fai stepped inside the room—she was fast asleep, brown hair vivid against the starched white sheets. He checked the IV before he touched her arm in an attempt to wake her.

"Sorry, hun, you've gotta wake up again," he muttered, and then spoke louder. "Sakura, wake up," he said tapping her arm. She stirred, her face screwed up in annoyance.

"Sakura, wake up," Fai said loudly, and her eyes fluttered open. She looked around dazedly before her eyes came into focus. Fai reached for the blood pressure pump as he heard her groan irritably and rub one eye with her fist. Fai found himself thinking she was pretty cute, looking grumpy like that and scowling at him because he had woken her up as he wrapped the sleeve around her arm. But he shook his head to clear any other thoughts of her from his mind; Fai always tried to be friendly to his patients, but since he saw so many he never had the chance to get to know them.

Sakura's vitals were normal, so he reached over to level out her IV drip and looked back down at her with a smile on his face.

"You can go back to sleep now." He assured, and turned to leave.

"…Wait," she whispered, and Fai realized Sakura had grabbed onto his blue scrub pants. He turned, frowning concernedly.

"Would you stay?" she whispered, this time even quieter, her hand still on his pant leg, "could you—hold my hand?" she asked, and Fai started at her request, his eyes wide. Sakura fiddled with the blankets and she looked back up at him. A small smile played on Fai's face but as much as he would have liked to stay, he had other patients to attend to. What was it his colleagues had told him? _Oh yes, don't get attached to the patients_. He was doing that a lot lately. She was cute, Fai admitted, and he felt a weird connection to her, but he really had to get back to work.

He gently pulled her fingers off his pant leg. "I'm sorry, I—" he started but she cut him off.

"Please?" she whispered, looking at him meaningfully. Fai's conscience kicked in and as he stared at Sakura he realized how small she looked, lying there all alone, with no one beside her. Her boyfriend had stayed by her side right up to the end of visiting hours. _Oh come on, Fai, you know you can't just leave here there after she's said that…_ Sighing softly Fai pulled up the plastic chair beside her bed and sat down, taking her hand in his.

Sakura smiled and she gripped his hand tighter before closing her eyes. "Syaoran-kun was here before, holding my hand… I just wanted to feel it again." she sighed, her voice now soft. "And, and I thought maybe you'd like to take a rest for a while—you look so sad, sometimes." Fai was speechless—he could do nothing more but stare at her. He watched her in fascination, curious as to how this girl barely knew him and yet she still asked him to hold her hand. Her fingers were cold from the IV, and he wrapped his other hand around both their hands to warm them.

"Sakura," Fai whispered, "I'll stay with you until you go to sleep, okay?" he watched as she opened her eyes briefly, and in the dull fluorescent glow from the hallway outside, Fai swore he saw Sakura blush as she give him a small, warm smile. She murmured back an "okay" as Fai leaned back in his chair, his thumb stroking the back of her hand in comfort, a smile across his own face.

This girl had an unnatural affect on him, and Fai vaguely found himself wondering if he had known Sakura from somewhere. Perhaps he would leave his apartment empty for a while after his shift was over. Yes, Fai thought, perhaps he would.


End file.
